Sarna News

This article is undergoing revision as part of Project: Planets, a collaborative effort to improve BattleTechWiki's coverage of planets and systems. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can add your name to the list of volunteers.

New Dallas was a planet or system within the Terran Hegemony, located near Borden and Marcus, and a part of the Tyrfing Province.[7] New Dallas was colonized in 2354 by settlers from a region of the former United States named Texas. The colonization of New Dallas was the result of Director-GeneralMichael Cameron restarting a general colonization drive within the boundaries of the Terran Hegemony. New Dallas was one of a number of worlds which had been ignored in the past, as it was only marginally habitable; one of the methods used by Cameron to break down nationalistic sentiment towards old countries on Terra was to encourage colonization on a regional basis, where inhabitants of particular regions of Terra could choose worlds that would be transformed into "paradises" through the efforts of the Hegemony. These worlds would then be settled by colonists from those regions, relocating the most nationalistically inclined to new worlds. New Dallas was one of these worlds.[15]

When New Dallas was originally settled, the planet was barely habitable. The atmosphere was thick and possessed abundant levels of greenhouses gases, making the planet a hellish hothouse with sweltering temperatures, and the original settlements were all located underground as a result. Over the course of the next century the terraforming efforts sponsored by the Hegemony made the planet more habitable, transforming it into a sub-tropical paradise. The soil became rich in nutrients, and New Dallas had long growing seasons and abundant supplies of water. This made New Dallas ideal for agricultural development, and mega-farms and ranches began to spread across the planet.[14]

Having established New Dallas the Hegemony government then worked to bind the population of the world to itself in a number of ways, one of which included favoring the planetary militia on New Dallas with preferred status for new technology, making them one of the first military units outside the Hegemony Armed Forces to receive the latest technology from the Hegemony development programs. With regular access to cutting-edge designs, the militia elected to construct a large underground bunker where older BattleMechs could be stored; this was a common occurrence during an era where 'Mechs were rare, expensive items.[15] Caddo City, the first settlement on New Dallas, grew to be the planetary capital city despite the intense seasonal storms that hit the city each year. The original habitat domes were sealed or re-purposed.[35]

Despite the apparent largess of the Hegemony government towards New Dallas, Director-GeneralMichael Cameron was suspicious of the highly-individualistic original colonists, and ordered the Hegemony Central Intelligence Directorate (HCID) to monitor the local population for signs of disloyalty. HCID established a presence on New Dallas, under the cover of conducting intelligence operations against factions outside the Hegemony borders, but also spent a decade monitoring the local population. HCID used the planetary militia as a cover, constructing a memory core underneath the militia barracks in Caddo City, continuing to operate from New Dallas well after the end of the monitoring operations against the population had ended without uncovering any evidence of disloyalty. The memory core was connected to New Dallas' military communications networks and configured to receive automatic updates.[36]

Prior to the fall of the Star League, a gas giant in the outer reaches of the New Dallas system served as the home port for the Thirty-third Recon Squadron of the Third Fleet. Re-purposing an abandoned ice mining facility and situated outside the standard stellar jump distance, the ships of the Thirty-third Recon Squadron could uncouple from their facilities and jump to hyperspace in less than half an hour.[37] New Dallas itself had become a breadbasket world, thanks to the combination of the Hegemony terraforming efforts, the climate and the rich soil; at its height, New Dallas was capable of providing enough produce to feed a dozen systems, and the inhabitants were known for their rugged individualism, cultural pride and deeply-held beliefs on self-reliance. This combination of beliefs and attitudes led to New Dallas to form one of the largest and best-equipped planetary militias to be found anywhere in Hegemony space.[14]

Lake Galvez, the large freshwater lake at the heart of Trinity, was home to five major cities along its shorelines at the height of the Star League era, and was home to the large technology sector on New Dallas.[35]

When Cameron moved to station forces from the Rim Worlds Republic on New Dallas, both Governor Clay and the senior military officer on New Dallas, Major GeneralCarlos Kataga, objected strenuously. They neither liked nor trusted the Republican forces, an attitude echoed by the people of New Dallas. Prior to the arrival of these new garrison forces, Governor Clay mobilized the New Dallas volunteer militia, which was already a strong planetary militia by any measure, and charged them with taking responsibility for both the three Castles Brian on New Dallas and a number of the local SLDF bases. General Kataga took this mobilization a step further by calling on the reservists living on New Dallas to voluntarily take on additional duties and responsibilities within the various SLDF bases. By far the greater part of the reservists did so; the measures were so successful that both Clay and Kataga reported to their respected superiors that there was no requirement for any additional forces to garrison New Dallas, based on the success of their mobilization.[2]

Despite the protests from both Clay and Kataga, Rim Worlds forces began arriving, operating under the command of the Republican General Viktoria Benboudaoud. Benboudaoud presented both with orders signed by GeneralAleksandr Kerensky requiring the Rim Worlds forces to take over control of the three Castles Brian, orders that Clay and Kataga greeted with outright laughter. The two agreed only to hand over tiny corners of the most outlying bases for garrisoning by the Republican forces, and when Benboudaoud objected, Clay ordered for her to be removed from his office under armed escort. Clay and Kataga then revoked all landing clearances for Republican forces and detained Benboudaoud's DropShip. General Benboudaoud raised strenuous objections to General Patrick Scoffins, the senior Republican officer in the Terran Hegemony, as well as complaining directly to Stefan Amaris himself, but neither was prepared to push the issue at the time, leaving the Rim Worlds forces to take up their meager facilities and make alternate plans for their ultimate conquest of New Dallas.[2]

In accordance with Amaris' plans to make the worlds of the Hegemony increasingly dependent on the Rim Worlds forces, independent terrorist attacks were sponsored on New Dallas in the name of various Periphery movements. However, rather than being able to respond to the crises and thereby gain greater influence on New Dallas, the Republican forces were blocked at every turn; whenever an incident occurred, General Kataga responded by deploying companies of SLDF recruits to provide security as required, replacing their planned field exercises with actual field experience, dealing with exactly the kind of incidents they could expect to face in the Periphery.[2]

Amaris' agents on New Dallas triggered increasing numbers of terrorist incidents on New Dallas in the build up to the coup, but the Republicans failed to gain any traction; the Rim Worlds forces were limited to being able to deploy only onto training areas, and even when they used the training areas it was under a strict watch by local observer units. In contrast with the Republican efforts, the military and police forces on New Dallas experienced increasing levels of success against the terrorists; this culminated in two battalions of mercenaries under Republican employ being discovered as they attempted to infiltrate onto New Dallas shortly before the coup was launched. These mercenaries, intended to support the Republican forces when APOTHEOSIS began, instead found themselves under arrest for terrorism with their equipment confiscated; the New Dallas authorities came precipitously close to uncovering the true origin of the terrorist incidents, and it was only the timing of the launch of APOTHEOSIS on the 27th of December 2766 that prevented New Dallas from completely unraveling Amaris' plans.[2]

In contrast to the campaign suddenly waged on the majority of the other worlds within the Hegemony, Benboudaoud found that her forces had to fight a completely different campaign on New Dallas. The effective manner in which the local authorities had restricted Republican access to secure facilities and constrained terrorist activities prevented the Republicans from planting much by way of bombs and booby traps as their original plans had called for;[2] the preemptive strike on the planetary HPG complex by Republican special forces was also rebuffed,[38] forcing Benboudaoud to order military strikes against the New Dallas military and local infrastructure.[2] Blocked from gaining control of the HPG, the 154th Amaris Dragoons went on the rampage, destroying the HPG and battling SLDF patrols throughout Caddo City. Much of the capital city was damaged or destroyed, including the planetary militia barracks - an action that inadvertently covered the entrance to the ancient boneyard bunker and HCID memory core underneath the barracks, concealing it further.[36]

The New Dallas militia blocked these Republican attacks, as well as Republican attempts to secure control of the local Space Defense System; when Benboudaoud was forced to call in support from the Republican WarShip flotilla responsible for securing the local jump points, the eight Republican WarShips found themselves facing an active SDS network under the control of General Kataga's forces. Dozens of drones engaged the Republican WarShips as General Kataga led his armed forces against Benboudaoud's forces on the ground[2] from the cockpit of his Rifleman II,[39] with the Republicans now heavily outnumbered by the SLDF and New Dallas troops. The New Dallas forces vanquished the Republicans on both the ground and in space over the course of the next six hours, leaving New Dallas under their control, at least temporarily.[2] Benboudaoud was killed in battle at the controls of her Rampage, having led the bulk of her forces from their position around Fort Resolute.[39]

Governor Clay called a planetary state of emergency in anticipation of further Republican attacks; the Republicans still had control of both jump points, as well as the SDS drones which had been assigned to the control of the jump point stations. When the Republicans made a second attempt to capture New Dallas on the 7th of January 2767 they began with a heavy naval engagement, with a fleet of thirty Republican WarShips augmented by the captured SDS drones attacking the New Dallas SDS drones above New Dallas on the 14th of January. Republican Admiral Otto Idowu waited until his forces had destroyed the last of the SLDF SDS drones before broadcasting that the defenders of New Dallas had one day to surrender and submit to the rule of Emperor Stefan Amaris, a demand that Clay and Kataga responded to by ordering the local aerospace fighter squadrons to engage and destroy the enemy forces. Despite being heavily outnumbered and outgunned the local squadrons managed to delay the Republican attack by several hours, but when the last of the squadrons had been destroyed Admiral Idowu ordered his WarShips to begin destroying the military bases on New Dallas using orbital bombardment.[2] Kataga was killed during the orbital bombardment of Fortress Goliad, remaining at the command post even as the Republican WarShips were burying the complex.[39]

This orbital bombardment continued all the way up to the 31st of January, at which point additional Republican ground forces began landing, taking advantage of the destruction of New Dallas' organized military to secure the planet. This didn't stop resistance movements forming on New Dallas, however; the Republicans promptly arrested Governor Clay, staged a mock trial and executed him, acts which led to New Dallas becoming a hotbed of resistance against the new Amaris regime.[2] The extensive bombardment of New Angelo, the most heavily industrialized city on New Dallas, saw millions of barrels of crude oil released into the countryside of the Caprock Midlands on Trinity in addition to demolishing the city.[35]

Although the resistance on New Dallas never managed to oust Amaris' occupation forces, it proved a valuable resource for the Star League Defense Force when Kerensky's forces arrived to liberate the planet in April 2773. New Dallas fell within the operational area of Task Force Commonwealth, and the first SLDF forces into the New Dallas system were naval forces under the command of AdmiralGodman Lawrence. The fleets were still recovering from the battles to liberate three other systems protected by SDS networks, but Lawrence had the benefit of information obtained from Nusakan and Operation KEYHOLE. Lawrence's first ships to enter the system were eleven ships captured from the Republican navy, equipped with forged orders detailing them to take command of half of the New Dallas drone fleet and redeploy them to Pollux and Tyrfing, systems considered to be more important. The ruse didn't work, but it lasted long enough that before being discovered, the SLDF had inserted a large force of marines onto the SDS defense stations at one jump point and secured them. The marines were able to deactivate the dozen drones controlled by those defense stations ahead of the bulk of Lawrence's fleet arrived, leaving the fleet facing only the drones from the other jump point and a smaller group at New Dallas.[40]

Lawrence's new tactics were validated at New Dallas, leading to far fewer losses in terms of ships and men than the three previous battles. The battle for New Dallas became much more conventional, with SLDF ground forces gaining assistance from resistance forces in every town and city to assist the SLDF in battling the occupying Republican forces. The Republican garrison consisted of a brigade of elite fighters, augmented by regiments of mercenary troops and Patriot forces, but within days of the SLDF landings[14] - which made extensive use of the many DropPorts around Lake Galvez[35] - the local citizenry had turned the tables on the Republicans and were conducting public trials and executions of their own.[40] When the Republicans were finally forced to retreat, they resorted to scorched-earth tactics, inflicting heavy damage on the planetary infrastructure and completely destroying Port Vera, a major city.[14]

The existence of the militia's boneyard bunker and its location had been forgotten by the time the Star League fell, but the centuries of close association with the Hegemony had instilled a profound loyalty to the Hegemony in the population, which had fatal results. During the brutal First Succession War the population of New Dallas refused to join any of the Great Houses; having continued to receive the best military equipment right up until the fall of the Star League, the local militia on New Dallas put up a fierce resistance against those Houses who attempted to annex the world, and did so while fielding equipment matching that of the Star League Defense Force Royal Divisions.[15] The population had vowed to never relinquish their world to a Great House, still considering themselves loyal citizens of the Hegemony despite the collapse of the Star League; recovery efforts had a long way to go, but an underground bunker which had been almost forgotten during the Amaris Civil War was recovered by the planetary militia, and proved to be a storehouse of "royal-quality" equipment, including heavy weapons, 'Mechs and vehicles. The militia included many former SLDF personnel who had chosen to retire, refusing to join the Exodus, and it was those ex-SLDF soldiers who piloted the advanced equipment.[14]

The Free Worlds League moved to annex New Dallas in March 2787, having bypassed the planet while taking a number of other nearby Hegemony systems. The Third and Fifth Atrean Dragoons and the Seventh Marik Militia expected the capture of New Dallas to be easy, but instead found themselves facing a well-armed, well-trained and well-equipped planetary militia and a population determined to resist. While the Third Atrean Dragoons found themselves bogged down by fierce resistance in and around Caddo City, the planetary militia fought the Seventh Marik Militia throughout the Lake Galvez region, pushing the Seventh to the brink of destruction.[14] The Seventh had attempted to use the same landing zones that the SLDF had used during Operation CHIEFTAIN, unaware that the planetary militia was massing in the region due to poor intelligence gathering. The remnants of the Seventh managed to retreat to their DropShips, many of which were destroyed.[36] It was only a combat drop conducted by the Third Atrean Dragoons' Second Battalion to reinforce the Seventh's drop zone that allowed any of the Seventh to survive to retreat into their DropShips.[41] Shocked by the level of resistance, the commanders of the invasion force authorised the use of tactical atomics against the militia. The nuclear weapons wiped out the resistance, but also destroyed the bulk of the remaining planetary infrastructure and major population centers.[14] The nuclear weapons used in Caddo City nearly destroyed the boneyard bunker and former HCID memory core concealed under the remains of the militia barracks, and actually collapsed part of the bunker during the battle.[36] The bombardment of Caddo City alone saw three hundred thousand civilians killed, in exchange for destroying two battalions of the New Dallas Militia - and occurred after the Militia had surrendered in response to the broadcast threat of nuclear weapons being used. The nuclear weapons destroyed the will of the population to resist, other than die-hard survivors of the Militia, who were further enraged by the callous tactics of the FWLM units and the wanton destruction they had caused.[42] The surviving Militia forces constructed a fake firebase in the ruins of Fort Resolute and used it as an ambush, luring the Third Atrean Dragoons into an attack and killing those Dragoons who fell for the trick, in what proved to be the last major battle.[43]

The damage inflicted on New Dallas by the Free Worlds League forces destroyed the last of the terraforming equipment, reversing the ancient terraforming efforts made by the Terran Hegemony and allowing the original hostile environment to reassert itself. This ecological reversion resulted in the citizens of New Dallas who had managed to survive the conflict on the planet leaving in large numbers, and by the time the Second Succession War began New Dallas was uninhabited once more.[44] Before leaving, the population saw the remaining resources of their fading homeworld looted extensively by military and corporate scavengers from the Free Worlds League before the League simply left the planet to die.[14]

New Dallas fell off maps of the Inner Sphere, one of many worlds to do so during the Succession Wars. It remained forgotten until Chandrasekhar Kurita obtained information through his intelligence networks which, when combined with information from the archaeological exploration company Interstellar Expeditions, revealed the Terran Hegemony's sharing of advanced technology with certain favored planetary militias. Kurita hired the mercenary unit known as the Devil's Brigade, dispatching them in pursuit of the world of New Dallas and the advanced Star League technology believed to be there. The Devil's Brigade found no cutting-edge 'Mechs or weapons - everything the militia had, apparently fought on the front lines during the nuclear attacks, and was long since destroyed - and determined that New Dallas was a wasteland.[44] Having initially found nothing, a consequence of the advanced SLDF equipment having been used on the front lines by the planetary militia during their battles with the Free Worlds League Military units in the First Succession War, the Devil's Brigade began conducting deep scans of the many ruins on New Dallas, attempting to identify any of the many SLDF bases and depots known to have been on the planet.[36]

On the 14th of August - almost a month after the Devil's Brigade's arrival on New Dallas - a Level III of troops from the BlakistNineteenth Division arrived at a pirate point above New Dallas, having been dispatched from Terra after the Word of Blake learned of the presence of the Devil's Brigade presence on New Dallas[36] via an orbital monitor ComStar had placed in orbit above New Dallas during the Second Succession War as part of a program to watch former Hegemony planets.[45] The Nineteenth Division forces drove the orbiting Brigade DropShips away from New Dallas before launching a raid directly at the Devil's Brigade dig site in Caddo City,[35] but not before the Brigade's Union-class DropShip Druid managed to prevent the Blakists from achieving complete surprise over the Brigade.[45] The Blakists and the Devil's Brigade battled throughout the radioactive remains of New Dallas' former capital in a brutal battle, during which the Blakists discovered the boneyard bunker. The Devil's Brigade battle armor contingent managed to surprise the Blakists, causing them to retreat briefly, during which time the Devil's Brigade to mount an expedition into the bunker.[36] The boneyard bunker was originally one of the habitation domes that comprised a part of the original Caddo City settlement, which the population had converted into a boneyard storage site and sealed.[35]

Deep within the heart of the bunker lay a worthy treasure - a Terran Hegemony Memory Core. The memory core was a testament to the intelligence gathering performed by the Terran Hegemony; it contained the designs, blueprints and specifications not just for Terran Hegemony equipment, from the most ancient of BattleMechs to cutting-edge Royal designs, but also information on those BattleMechs designed and built by the other nations of the Inner Sphere and even the Periphery.[44] The memory core was the same core that HCID had installed centuries before, locating it within the militia's boneyard bunker as a part of their covert operations, and it had continued to receive updates through the military and communications networks up until the destruction of New Dallas.[36] The Devil's Brigade managed to extract themselves from the bunker via one of the original secret entrances and spent days on the run, dodging Blakist patrols and attempting to put some distance between them and their pursuers so that they could escape from New Dallas. Following a major battle outside the ruined remains of New Angelo, the Devil's Brigade managed to get the brief break in the Blakist air cover they needed, and boarded their DropShips[36] - the Druid and the Seeker-class Two-Bucks[46] - on the 20th of August, although it meant leaving most of their recovered salvage behind,[36] but not before the oil-saturated terrain around the ruins had been set aflame by the artillery support from the Two-Bucks, the flames engulfing half of the pursuing Level II.[47]

The Devil's Brigade brought the memory core to Kurita, who used every means at his disposal to disseminate the information as widely and as quickly as possible. As a result, the same machines that fought on the surface of New Dallas would soon begin reappearing across the Inner Sphere - as well as machines that predated them by centuries. New Dallas and the legacy left by those who settled it would be responsible for the appearance of the technology known as RetroTech from factories across human space during the Word of Blake'sJihad in the mid-31st century.[44]

New Dallas has three major continents named Ellum, Reunion and Trinity. Reunion and Trinity are joined by a land bridge, whilst Ellum is an island continent; the Brazos Ocean separates Ellum and Reunion, while the Baja Ocean separates the bulk of Reunion and Trinity, as well as falling between Trinity and Ellum. There are also a number of large and small islands. At the heart of Reunion lies Lake Galvez, a large inland lake.[1] After the terraforming efforts conducted by the Hegemony, New Dallas featured vast swathes of savannah and thickly forested regions. As a legacy of the terraforming, New Dallas was prone to massive seasonal thunderstorms, although these were more prevalent on Reunion and Trinity than on Ellum, as a consequence of the long coasts and vast, flat plains the two larger continents featured. During the spring and fall months, Reunion and Trinity suffered from tornadoes and gale-force winds.[35]

Caddo City: the planetary capital city and spaceport; located on the coast of western Trinity.[1] Caddo City was the first settlement on New Dallas and was originally a collection of domed habitats.[35]

Culver: a major city on the northern shore of Lake Galvez in central Reunion, east of Galvez City.[1]

Fortress Bexar: a major military fortress - possibly a Castle Brian - located in the mountains of central Ellum.[1]

Fortress Goliad: the largest Castle Brian on New Dallas, and the location of the planetary SDS network control center.[35] Located close to the southern shore of Trinity.[1]

Fort Jacinto: a major military fortress - possibly a Castle Brian - located in the western foothills of the mountains in northern Reunion.[1]

Fort Resolute: a major military fortress - possibly a Castle Brian - located on the southwestern coast of Trinity, south of Caddo city.[1]

Galvez City: a major city on the northern shore of Lake Galvez in central Reunion.[1]

Moonlight: a major city located at the apex of a large bay on the southern coast of Reunion.[1]

New Angelo: a major city and spaceport located in the Caprock midlands in central Trinity.[1] New Angelo was the most heavily-industrialized city on New Dallas, located atop vast oil reserves. Destroyed or badly damaged by extensive orbital bombardment in 2767.[35]